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ZPiDER

*A:M User*
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Posts posted by ZPiDER

  1. after a lot of tweaking, here is the (almost) final version of nimmie.

     

    i've checked her hair and obviously i already peeked at kevin's settings before, so it actually has the very same density, thickness, etc.

    my guess is that in the final setting, these hair issues wont be visible.

     

    i'm still unhappy with the shading on her apron, but i'm working on a special shader which will hopefully work.

    am_face_render000_13_longc.jpg

    am_face_render000_13_closec.jpg

  2. i built a "skeleton" of the svn structure on my disk like this

     

    data

    - Shared Data

    -- Materials

    -- Models

    --- Actors

    ---- Nimmie_Ammee

     

    i do this by hand (use the repo browser to have a look at the structure you need). then i go to the folders i need and check out only these.

    by that you can avoid getting the full 7 GB of data and still have all relative references intact.

     

    i think using the svn from within a:m would make this process easier, but i'm not having much luck with that ..

     

    BUT: for materials that are very specific to the character i usually create the materials inside a "Materials" subfolder of the character. that way it doesnt clutter the shared materials while being used only once anyway.

  3. i'm not sure if the sparseness will be an issue since the shown shot is very close and quite high res .. increasing the density is of course possible, but it might require too much time to render a frame. i'll have a look at kevins hair settings and adjust according to those.

     

    yes, the kinks to look a bit small .. might go unnoticed on long shots .. i'll fix that.

     

    about the teared pores: i actually tried to recreate these little wrinkles women have instead of pores around the eyes, but it doesnt work too well with bumps .. i'll try some more :)

     

    i'm only using gray values for the ambiant map, white means 100% ambiance intensity, black 0%.

  4. thanks all for the comments!

     

    thanks ken for the heads-up on the eye! but i havent installed it (yet) as i cannot get the coloring i'd like (inside purple, outside blue), so i have added an ambiance map on the head for now. this also gives the opportunity to fake sss effects by adding ambiance to thin areas like the nose.

     

    i've also added some stains to the apron. is it ok or is it too faint?

     

    i also updated the lace of her apron to make it look less wispy and detailed the snood.

    am_face_render_snood.jpg

  5. it does look too spacey.

    i'd like to see some thick wooden cupboards crowding the place ..

    imo the furniture looks too modern, especially the table and rug feel a bit out of place.

    the lights on the left look a lot better than the ones on the right color-wise.

    a wood cache next to the fireplace would save them some legwork.

     

    but i guess its just my imagination i dunno .. reading the script i pictured the cabin as a very narrow place, made of chunky wood. the wood is very light colored (fir/spruce) and in a few places detailed with simply painted floral designs, other parts covered with a simple white wash and blue details.

  6. nancy, i think your concerns will be relieved when the scene is finished (except for that boss watching thing which is actually intended since we are selling the sw to bosses :) )

    the "window" will show the back side of a very simple website, so the magnifying glas will be directed at that, not the people.

     

    vern, yes i modeled him after you :)

     

    thanks for the comments!

  7. Apron looks great....maybe some sign of use. Are the eyes/irises done?

     

    yes! i'll add a bit of her meal onto it. i suppose there would need to be variations on such stains for shots that take place at different times?

     

    the iris should be done, but i'm not happy with the white of her eyes. something must be wrong with the file, i just cannot tweak the diffuse falloff on that group, but it does work at other places .. i guess i'll end up using an ambiance map for that ..

     

    question: are we even supposed to texture the eyes with maps or should they be done with the eyeball material? (i have mapped them for now since it renders quicker)

     

    now what did nimmie have for lunch ..

  8. the closeup shows some more demanded features: freckles, makeup, improved spec

     

    the long shot is rendered with 3x3 multipass (multipass=off didnt work well with the bump map here).

     

    what will be the settings for the final render? is it ok to requre multipass?

    am_face_render_full.jpg

    am_face_render_makeup.jpg

  9. i'm having a little trouble with her eyes:

     

    1. i cannot decide on a color. i have three candidates so far, but

    a ) the browm dows somehow not play well with her hair color

    b ) the green would be more typical for a blonde

    c ) i like the blue best, it also has a bit of that oz feel with the purple,

    but is it too alien?

     

    2. i cant figure out how to tweak surface properties once i've applied a texture.

    i'd like to change the falloff of the eyes to something like 70%, but setting it on the group has no effect at all if the patches are textured. is this supposed to be like this? am i not getting something?

    am_face_render_eyes.jpg

  10. i'm having trouble submitting my work to svn (cant log in with tortoise) right now, if someone needs the model please tell me, i'll e-mail it.

     

    yes the eyes will need texturing too. i'd like to get away without ambiance, because it always messes with the lighting, maybe i'll get away with a lower falloff ..

  11. thanks all for your comments and suggestions!

     

    i was sick this week, so not much progress, but here is a little update taking some of your suggestions, adding a spec map and fixing the hair (it was the spec color, shouldnt have been white).

    face_render8.jpg

  12. i have added some of the color variation, i'll add some more red and pink later.

     

    a bssrdf shader would be neat .. every time i try increasing the bump strength i end up toning it down again because it makes the skin look hard + dry..

     

    in the meanwhile i have replaced the shag curls with emitters with 6 cps, this look doesnt have that fade at the end, also this way i dont need shag hair anymore.

     

    BUT: i have duplicated kevin's settings for the tin servant's hair, but it just wont render as nice as his .. is it the lights or am i doing something wrong

    face_render7.jpg

  13. here is an update .. it doesnt look like much, but getting her hair to look even remotely convincing was really a lot of effort ..

    i ended up using a combination of direction maps and grooming to get the hair as close to the skull as possible.

    maybe i shouldnt add as much detail as it wont be seen anyway though ..

     

    all hair is just black for now, i hope that cool hair shader will add some livelynedd to it.

     

    i've also added some saturation to the color map to make her look less gray.

     

    oh yeah: i noticed, that the model had 20% ambiance set, i have removed that because it messed with the hair. is this ok?

    face_render6b.jpg

  14. Along the same line, some trees need to be added along the outside wall ..

     

    maybe some tree stumps along the forest line too to show where he's living out those woodman fantasies of his?

     

    those new renders are really lovely!

     

    i just noticed that the walls are made of huge seamless sheets of tin. in a fairytale anything is possible, but maybe adding some seams could also help to make those walls look more substantial? maybe in a brick-like pattern, but scaled way up, to betray the viewers sense of scale in those intro long shots?

  15. yeah you are right, when i set my monitors gama very high i can see it too .. its not distortion, i've controlled that area before, and its not jped artifacts, so it must be mapping artifacts. hmm .. how should i proceed with this? reduce the bump depth in shadowy areas? blur the bump map?

     

    Rodney, i think i can get rid of that hairy look on her eyebrows by tweaking the hair material some more.

     

    oversampling might also help, since our target is only video, it should not be too expensive. this would also help with the mapping artifacts.

     

    will renders be oversampled or rendered to target resolution?

    bump_render_detail.jpg

  16. here is a little update:

     

    1. i have added hair eyebrows with length and direction maps

     

    i'm getting some stray hairs (see above her left eyebrow) - position variation is set to 0. anyone knows where these come from?

     

    it looks nice, but i dont know if there will be any real close-up shots of her, so i'm unsure if its worth it to add hair eyebrows to the characters ..

     

    2. i've painted most of her face bump map (at 246x1536 pixels)

     

    the detail in this map is very fine, basically i've drawn all of her pores and tiny creases, i hope this wont lead to any mapping artifacts in animation ..

     

    when i've finished the bump map, i'll start with the spec map to make her lips look less dry.

    bump_render.jpg

  17. Ken, yes, i i'll try hair for her eyebrows.

     

    Yves, i actually found a pic of her without makeup, but you dont want to see it ..

     

    i do have some hi-res shots with natural looking makeup though, i'll create a bump map off them next.

  18. somewhere up in this thread i've asked if i should also do hair .. Ken answered if i and my computer are up to it .. my computer doesnt seem to have a problem, but i just cant get a good look out of hair other than Battle Angel Alita's (GUNNM) :)

     

    anyway, i've created the first color texture for Nimmies face, like christina ricci i've made her very pale.

    this choice makes some uneven parts in the model appear more prominent, so porcelain might be needed for her skin. the second image shows her with porcelain.

    face_render2.jpg

    face_render2_p.jpg

  19. no, actually i dont stamp this texture, i stamp the wireframe texture, so its easier to align it.

    after stamping the wireframe texture, i open it up in photoshop and apply a pattern fill with the checkers.

    a:m then updates its texture from the file, so i dont have to stamp again.

     

    oops, i just noticed that part is missing from the description, i'll fix that.

     

    Zaryin, the uv-editor is much nicer to work with, but it has a serious drawback: if you change your model splineage, you'll have to do it all again, because the new parts were not part of the projection back then.

     

    with the action approach i can just open the action, position the new cps, recall the position of the decal and re-apply it.

    but the action does not allow to split patches, so one cannot build a good complete texture of a model, you'll always have to make 2 textures (back + front).

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